Word Origin & History

1650s, from French cabaret, originally "tavern" (13c.), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Middle Dutch cambret, from Old French (Picard dialect) camberete, diminutive of cambre "chamber" (see chamber). The word was "somewhat naturalized" in this sense [OED] It came to mean "a restaurant/night club" in English from 1912; extension of meaning to "entertainment, floor show" is from 1922.

Example Sentences for cabaret

It was a tall, hideous house, with a cabaret on the first floor.

We went from one cabaret to another, laughing at everything.

It is a narrow lane, and there is a cabaret at each corner of it.

You had better leave your horse at some cabaret on this side of the town, and go in on foot.

A peasant, with a horse and cart, was standing in front of a cabaret.

And he led the way to a cabaret where they sold his favourite wine.

To have seen Toulouse-Lautrec's poster of him and his Cabaret was to recognize him at a glance.

Because he had the glamour about him of real adventure and cabaret glitter?

Somehow, he expected the Cabaret Noir to be a different place.

The cabaret was full of conscripts and other people, so that the hostess had enough to do.